Solving serious crimes such as sexual assault, rape, and murder takes a considerable amount of investigation time. Despite efforts, many crimes may be unsolved, and go ‘cold’. These cases are typically extensive and reviewing the material can be prohibitively time consuming. The current manuscript proposes the combination of two methods, or ‘tools’, for timeline analyses: Matrix Forecasting and Behaviour Sequence Analysis (BSA). Matrix Forecasting provides a clear and comprehensive approach to outlining predictions investigators make, the rationale underlying these predictions, the accuracy, and the evidence. Matrix Forecasting also outlines areas for future investigation, for example, if new technology becomes available or new test results are returned. The BSA provides a statistical, visual pathway map that outlines the proposed or proven steps in a crime. The combination of these methods provides a new approach to mapping criminal investigations and has been effectively used in several real-world cold case reviews. To illustrate the benefits of this combined approach, a real-world example, the Jeffrey MacDonald, aka Green Beret Killer case, will be analysed using Matrix Forecasting and BSA to show the benefits of the method in terms of providing a quick-guide for future review and solvability factors.

解决性侵犯、强奸和谋杀等严重犯罪需要相当长的调查时间。尽管付出了努力，但许多罪行可能仍未解决，并且会“冷落”。这些案例通常很广泛，审查材料可能非常耗时。目前的手稿提出了两种方法或“工具”的组合，用于时间线分析：矩阵预测和行为序列分析(牛血清白蛋白)。矩阵预测提供了一种清晰而全面的方法来概述调查人员所做的预测、这些预测的基本原理、准确性和证据。矩阵预测还概述了未来调查的领域，例如，如果新技术可用或返回新的测试结果。BSA 提供了一个统计的、可视化的路径图，概述了犯罪中建议或已证实的步骤。这些方法的结合为映射刑事调查提供了一种新方法，并已有效地用于几个现实世界的冷案审查。为了说明这种组合方法的好处，一个真实的例子，杰弗里麦克唐纳，又名绿色贝雷帽杀手案，